SCAE venturing into the art world New center is program's latest effort to expand and reinvent

By Shawn P. Sullivan

Sanford News Editor

Thursday, February 7, 2013

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photo by Shawn P. Sullivan
Sanford Community Adult Education Director Allen Lampert sits amid paintings and supplies in SCAE’s new art center, which is tentatively scheduled to open at the Anderson Learning Center on March 1.

SPRINGVALE — For decades, Sanford Community Adult Education (SCAE) has offered academic, employment and enrichment opportunities to local students. Starting soon, SCAE also will offer a new opportunity at the Anderson Learning Center — artistic pursuits.

SCAE, located at 21 Bradeen Street, is scheduled to open its new, two-room art center on Friday, March 1. At this center, students, families and artists will be able to paint pictures and make ceramics and pottery. Right now, the center’s shelves are filled with art supplies, the walls are draped with pictures and educational posters, and the floors are lined with tables, chairs and desks.

“We even have a kiln,” SCAE Director Allen Lampert declared during a tour of the new center on Friday, Feb. 1. “You’re going to be able to create your own bowls, platters, mugs, vases ... then you’ll be able to paint them as you see fit.”

Deb Thompson, an art teacher at St. Thomas School, will coordinate the center, Lampert said. She also teaches classes at SCAE.

SCAE has been working with local artist Richard Dearborn to develop the center.

“It’s going to be a full-fledged art center,” with classes for adults and senior citizens during weekdays and nights and programs for families and children on weekends, according to Lampert. SCAE also will offer the studio for private use.

“If you’re a local artist, and you need studio time, we’ll provide you with the facility for a reasonable fee,” Lampert said. “We want to do weekend birthday parties in the ceramics center.”

For Lampert and SCAE, therein lies the appeal of the new art center. SCAE has been able to establish the center with the support of the Sanford School Department. Once it is open, the center is expected not only to offer enrichment opportunities for the public, but also create revenue for SCAE — something that should please local taxpayers, Lampert said.

“We’re trying to come up with ways to generate more revenue here, in an attempt to rely less on federal and state funding,” Lampert said. “That’s the big picture, right there.”

The art center is SCAE’s latest effort to expand. Last fall, SCAE started offering enrichment programs — for yoga and Tai Chi, for example — in the Anderson Learning Center’s basement and began conducting GED and Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) testing on the building’s third floor.

During the summer of 2012, SCAE even offered a weeklong garage-band camp, in which local musicians worked with teenagers to develop their sense of rockin’ and rollin’. The camp proved a big hit and culminated with a successful concert in the city hall’s auditorium on a Friday night. Lampert said the camp will return this summer.

“We expect to triple our enrollment in the camp,” Lampert said. “There’s a big buzz going on about it at the high school.”